Washington Metropolitan Police Department have launched a probe of “Meet the Press” host David Gregory and the 30-round magazine he held up during last Sunday’s broadcast, with NRA’s executive vice president Wayne LaPierre as his guest.

Politico: Washington Metropolitan Police Department is investigating whether any city laws were violated when NBC’s David Gregory displayed what appeared to be a 30-round gun magazine on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, a spokesman confirmed to POLITICO. “The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating this matter,” said police officer and spokesman Araz Alali in an interview Tuesday.

“There are D.C. code violations, D.C. code restrictions on guns, ammunition. We are investigating this matter. Beyond the scope of that, I can’t comment any further,” he said.

The right wing is whigging out about the incident, quite unperturbed by the gist of his argument, whether or not a smaller clip would have meant less lives lost in the Newtown school shooting or any other mass shooting. Maybe David Gregory was in violation of the law, but I scarcely believe he was in possession of the rifle that the magazine needed to be attached to. Has anyone stopped to think that there is a real possibility that the magazine in question was an empty one or one that was not fully loaded? It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks.

UPDATE#1 (12/26/2012): The Washington Post reports “NBC News asked D.C. police for permission to use a high-capacity ammunition clip as a prop on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” show, a request District authorities said Wednesday they denied.”

“But host David Gregory appears to have used one anyway — and then displayed it on national television. Now D.C. police say they’re investigating whether the District’s gun laws were violated in the incident.”